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America's Great Depression  By  cover art

America's Great Depression

By: Murray N. Rothbard
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Publisher's summary

Applied Austrian economics doesn't get better than this. Murray N. Rothbard's America's Great Depression is a staple of modern economic literature and crucial for understanding a pivotal event in American and world history.

The Great Depression was not a crisis for capitalism but merely an example of the downturn part of the business cycle, which was generated by government intervention in the economy. Had this book appeared in the 1940s, it might have spared the world much grief. Even so, its appearance in 1963 meant that free-market advocates had their first full-scale treatment of this crucial subject. The damage to the intellectual world inflicted by Keynesian- and socialist-style treatments would be limited from that day forward.

©1978 Murray N. Rothbard (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about America's Great Depression

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding historical analysis

Excellent book, but not for someone looking for a biographical history filled with famous personalities or a social history looking back at everyday life during a time of 25% unemployment. This is an economic history. It is recommended for anyone who would like a detailed anaylisis of how federal monetary policy errors can cause false booms by expanding the credit money supply, leading eventually to inevitable recessionary or depressionary corrections. It also explores how Keynesian fiscal policy tends to exacerbate and extend these periods of correction. Interesting, if for no other reason than this cycle of inflationary boom and recession/depression is still with us, and the same disproven tactics are still used as treatments. Anyone interested in the history of banking, finance or economics will probably find this a good read.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

required reading- hard to capture over audio

Murray Rothbard is one of the Austrian Economists who Rep. Ron Paul puts on his reading list. This book is very technical and requires a lot of concentration to truly understand the causes of the depression and what prolonged the depression.

This book gives an excellent account of causes of the great depression in the 20s. It uncovers banker's corruption, moral suasion, and secrets of Cal and Harding's presidency. There are unfortunately many similarities between the greenspan/bernanke fed and the fed of the 20's.

This book should be required reading for every person elected to our congress.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

a classic

A classic work on how the initiation of violence caused the great depression and suffocated any recovery. Unfortunately read rather fast for the complexity of the subject matter and the amount of detailed data. If you are not very familiar with economic terms, it might go a bit fast and I would recommend the paper version.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    out of 5 stars

Polemic for laissez-faire economics

A non-history from neo-Social Darwinists.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Witch hunt

If you supported Ron Paul then this is the book for you otherwise skip this one and read (The Global Impact of the Great Depression, 1929-1939) it is A far better book and does not seek to make the U.S. Government out to be the Great Satan.

Pastmasterbd

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Murray Rothbard tells it like it is - or was

If you could sum up America's Great Depression in three words, what would they be?

Economics is normally a boring subject, but Austrian School economics tells the truth about everything. If you want to truly understand our money and what's going on you should listen to this book. I would also recommend Rothbard's other books, like What has Government Done to our Money. Richard R., Toronto

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Too much to listen to.

I thaught this would be a simple expliantion on the major causes of the gret depression. It was more like a doctorial thesis. I might read this book, but listening to it is extremely difficult. It's way too complicated to passively listen to. Your always losing track of the details. It may be a good reference book for school.

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7 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

Unethical nonsense

Trying to justify "brief" but crippling depressions as better and "necessary" compared to state intervention to stave off the worst of downturn is a false dichotomy, and involves ignoring any social responsibility to fellow citizens. In order to ascribe to these views one must imagine homelessness as an easily rectified situation that you can therefore ignore; injustice as something the free market can simply buy its way out of; overall, just total ignorance of any power structures that exist in the world and just imagine dollars controlling everything.

Impossible to apply in the real world, and dangerously dishonest in the kind of way that allows justification of truly broken systems attempting to align to this method.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

shhh, dont tell the hoover institute

no one tell the hoover institute that this book exists. the truth would break their hearts.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Rothbard doesn't miss one detail

If you're okay with learning every single detail about the depression, this book is for you. There is no stone left unturned regarding the depression in this book.

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5 people found this helpful